


What for?

by Lulukaw



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Gen, Sad Sylvain Jose Gautier, Sylvain Week (Fire Emblem)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:40:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22994098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lulukaw/pseuds/Lulukaw
Summary: Sylvain finds something interesting but immediately gets reminded of his status.Day 1+2 of Sylvain Week: Girls/Study
Kudos: 9
Collections: Sylvain Week 2020!





	What for?

As he walked through the market stalls, Sylvain stopped abruptly in front of one, almost dropping some of the heavy bags he was holding. A certain book had caught his eye. He approached it. He brushed the cover with his free hand, leather dyed in blue and beautifully engraved with golden lettering reading  _ On Stars: A Study of Fodlan's Celestial Objects _ . He opened it and flipped through the pages to take a look at it. It was filled with pictures and drawings and complicated formulas he craved to study more in depth to understand them.

"What are you doing?" a voice behind him asked.

Sylvain almost jumped before turning back to face the girl he was accompanying with his usual smile. 

“Oh sorry I left you alone, it was terribly rude of me when you were talking to me-"

" What is that? Astronomy?" she cut him, taking the book from his hand with an amused look on her face.

A bad feeling took over him at seeing her expression. A feeling of déjà-vu. He kept his smile in place before answering. Maybe he was only imagining things and she had a genuine interest for the book. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to be honest for once.

“Yeah, you like it too? It looks really interesting right, I’m going to buy it!”

“Pft what for?” she chuckled. “This kind of knowledge is useless for a servant of the monastery as much as for a future margrave, isn’t it?”

Ah. There it was again. He should have listened to himself before speaking. He knew it had always been like this, since his childhood. When his father or professors would see him read books in the house’s library that they did not deem appropriate or necessary for his education.  _ This kind of knowledge is useless, don’t do more than what is expected from the heir to House Gautier, stick to your role. _ Sure he liked history, military strategy and everything he had the right to study too. It was not even that he wanted to study astronomy or anything else and actually do something with it, he just liked reading and accumulating knowledge about any interesting topic he could find.  _ But what for? _ Even he was wondering that sometimes. They were right, it would not be useful in the future. So he had progressively stopped sneaking ‘useless’ books from the library to his room at night. And as he grew up, the sayings had changed, and they did not only come from his family and professors anymore.  _ Sylvain is so handsome, and he has a crest, he’s sure to take the head of the house with his good-for-nothing of a brother disowned.  _ So he had progressively stopped liking to learn even about the useful subjects. What for? His path was already certain and he could not do anything about it. Why would he care to study and train and become the good Gautier heir everyone expected when everything was already settled. He was going to take the head of the house no matter what, for the sole reason that he was born with this crest he cursed every day of his life. He should rather have as much fun as he could before getting an arranged marriage and becoming the superficially loved and respected margrave Sylvain Jose Gautier and having to give birth to as many children as necessary until one with a crest would arrive to repeat the cycle endlessly.

Sylvain looked at the book with a mix of sadness, anger and resignation in his eyes. He half-sighed half-laughed before putting in back on the stall and offered a large bright smile to the girl. He put his arm around her shoulders and started to lead her towards the market exit.

“You’re right, what for?”

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah so it's very tiny because I'm stupid and writing these as the week already started instead of having them prepared in advance but anyway. I hope you enjoyed it and there's not too many mistakes. I have a few more ideas for the other days I hope to finish in time so you can expect to see a bit more from me!


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